Ngazikha
Ngazikha '(ŋa.θi.xːa, or just "Goblin Tongue" in Common) is the language the Goblins speak among themselves in the world of Seyandun, and the lingua franca of many sentient non-human creatures. Inspiration Created at first as a non-world specific Goblin language (for whenever I my need one, like in an RPG, for example) and a self-imposed challenge to try to do my first minimalistic conlang, the only use case at the moment is the con-world of Seyandun. Unlike most of my other conlangs, instead of starting with the phonology and then building up the rest, this time around I started with the writing system, deriving it from a set of glyphs that a friend of mine did as a DM for a puzzle in an RPG game he directed, and then assigning phonetic values to the glyphs. General information It is classified as a partially analytic language, as it is weakly inflected. The language is somewhat head-final, using prepositions and placing the determiners after the noun, although adjectives do follow the noun too (preceding the determiners if there are any), and the word order is SVO. The exact noun phrase order is the following: The noun follows the numeral if there is one, the adjective/s follow the noun, the determiner follows the adjective's if there are any, or the noun otherwise, and the determiner is followed by the postposition if the noun phrase is part of an adpositional phrase. However, any noun complements that are adpositional phrases must precede the noun phrase. Phonology and writing Original syllabary From the writing system we can easily glean the syllabary used in the first form of the writing system: However, these are not the sounds used in the modern descendant of the language. The i vowel became a semivowel next to other vowels (currently romanized ), but followed a i → ɨ → ɯ → Ø conversion in many other syllables. Specifically, the language underwent the following sound changes: * ti → tɯ → θɯ → θ / !_s ( ts) * pi → pɯ → ɸɯ → ɸ * i → ɨ → ɯ → Ø / C_ * ste → sti → stʃ → sʃ → ʃ: * ne → nje → ɲɪ → ɲ * pe → pə → p (p̚) * e → ɪ → i * o → u * kn → ŋ * ks → xs → x: * pn → ʔm → m Some words still have ni instead of ɲ (either because they didn't undergo the sound change or they're borrowings or have a different origin). These words are written with the glyphs for and (old and ). Phonetic inventory Consonants The semivowel w is inside parentheses because it isn't represented in writing as a consonant, but can be pronounced as w in front of another vowel. Vowels Writing system and romanization The current writing system is a semi-syllabary, with glyphs representing V, C, or CV combinations. The romanization of the language is as follows: Ngazikha researches are actually split on whether romanization should reflect the current pronunciation or should try to reflect the glyphs used in writing; a slight majority is in favor of the former, and is more widespread, so this is the one shown here, but doing the latter is still accepted, and there are people who fall between both groups (like using for u but for i instead of , for m but for x instead of ). Grammar Nouns There is little inflection on a noun. The paucal marker (for an amount from 2 to 4 elements) is an '-f suffix, while the plural marker is the particle kif following the noun. However, when the quantity of a noun is unspecified, the default grammatical number is the paucal one, and the usage of the plural is an implied specification of a big number. Both adding the suffix '-f' and following the noun with the particle kif is done rarely for emphatic effect, to mean huge or incommensurable quantities. Or, it can be analyzed as '-f' being the plural suffix, yet for quantities above 4, a "noun + kif" construction (similar to English's "a lot of noun") must be used instead (with "noun + kif" being an equivalent to "lots of noun"). Determiners and demonstratives There's one definite article and it's "ik". All proper nouns must be followed by it (Goblin names incorporate it as part of the name, ending in "-ik", like Zkisikkifik, meaning "The Many Cold Mountains"). There is a two-way distinction between demonstratives: Tuku and nïku can also be used as the adverbs "here", "there". Pronouns Tu and nï are also the first and second person pronouns. The third person pronoun is saik. Verbs The language uses zero copula. * Future: marked with “-k”. * Past: particle “zi” following the verb. * Present continuous: particle “kukh” following the verb. * Past continuous: “zi kukh” following the verb. * Recent past: “zik” following the verb. * Negative: “si” preceding the verb. * Imperative: auxiliar verb “ta” preceding the verb. Syntax Khak is a catch-all interrogative and relative pronoun meaning "who/what/which"; any question or relative clause construction must take this into account ("where" questions are formulated as "what place" instead; "when" is instead "what time"; ...). In interrogative sentences, khak replaces the noun being asked for; in relative clauses, it follows the connector noun, followed itself by the relative clause replacing the repeated noun with saik or removing it altogether (whichever is clearer). Yes-no questions (or statements which pose a yes-no dichotomy implicitly unknown by the speaker) must be followed by the sentence-final particle si. (Vocabulary will be added in a future edit.) Example text "She will cook the food if I light the fire." (Reddit Challenge). Saik yuzkaktak khus ik khak tu ta ta zkak. jut.kak.tak xus ik xak tu ta ta‿z.kak 3PSG cook.FUT food DET REL.PRON 1PSG IMP do fire Notable etymology: * yu-zkakta: Sweet-burning * zkak-ta: fire-do